We have thus far whittled down 112 players to 42 in Day 3 of the EPT Madrid main event, but another 18 players will be sent to the rail before bagging and tagging takes place. We’ve lost a plethora of notable players including Toby Lewis (57th), Johnny Lodden (60th), Barny Boatman (64th) and Vadim Markushevski (69th), but far more are still in fighting for the title.
Across the final six tables are a number of interesting match ups with players, stacks and positions that are just begging for a clash to take place. Here are few to look out for in our live updates:
Paur v Lopes
Taylor Paur has just been moved into the seat directly to the left of Bruno Lopes. Paur holds 400,000, more than enough to take a serious dent out of Lopes’ 640,000 stack. Both players have around $380,000 in live cashes to their name. Paur’s online winnings, however, dwarf that with a hefty $3,385,536. Not a man you want to have on your left.
McDonald v MacPhee
It’s a Mc/Mac-off with this morning’s chip leader, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald holding position and chip power over Kevin ‘ImaLuckSac’ MacPhee. McDonald’s day started off badly but he has rallied well to find himself on 520,000 in these late stages. MacPhee’s been forced into a rearguard action and sits on around 135,000. MacPhee, who has combined live/online recorded wins of more than $6,000,000, is unlikely to panic but he must be cursing having one of the only other players to rival his successes sat with a larger stack on his direct left.
Boujenah v Simao
Ilan Boujenah is a terror at the table. Allthough he’s quick to raise hell if he feels ill-judgement has been directed at him, the guy can play poker. Boujenah is stacked up to 660,000 and has just moved to João Paulo Simão’s table, a Brazilian who has been going through massive swings – up to a million, down to 400,000 and now back up to 550,000. These two look unlikely to back away from a raising war if they think they can dominate the other.
Jensen v Mozdzen
Danish player Frederik Jensen has been on the brink of EPT success before with a 6th place finish at EPT Vilamoura. Although Toby Lewis and Martin Jacobson finished heads up for the title, Jensen would certainly have been a worthy winner. The Dane is currently chipped up to 540,000 but has just had Clayton Mozdzen seated to his immediate left. Although the Canadian has just $257,231 live winnings to his name he does seem to have some game and his 300,000 stack could certainly cause some problems for Jensen.
Tournament snapshot
Level 18: blinds 3000-6000, ante 500
Players: 42 of 477
Average stack: 341,000
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